The Adventures Of Jerry Garcia’s Tiger Guitar At 75th Birthday Celebration

Christopher McKinney has a dream job for someone who loves guitars. McKinney is charged with curating and caring for Jim Irsay’s multi-million dollar guitar collection. The Indianapolis Colts owner has over 200 axes in his collection including Tiger, a guitar Jerry Garcia used extensively from 1979 and 1989. Many of Garcia’s guitars were brought to Red Rocks this past Friday night for an all-star concert and McKinney has shared a video documenting his experience with Tiger.

McKinney shows us how Tiger had its own seat on the flight out to Colorado. Christopher then gives us a peek at soundcheck and all of Garcia’s guitars assembled in a roadcase. Jerry’s guitars were then put on stage for photo opportunities. Christopher shares photos showing the detail on some of the axes. As the concert begins, McKinney takes us on a tour of the historic and scenic venue. After the 11-minute mark the video rolls on with shakey footage of the music that took place at last Friday’s tribute to Jerry Garcia. Past the 30-minute mark Christopher adds more behind-the-scenes video and photos from Red Rocks including clips shot from backstage.

Watch a montage of Tiger’s trip to Red Rocks: